Mark Zuckerberg drops suits to force sale of Hawaiian lands

This Jan. 15, 2017 file photo shows public Pilaa Beach, center, below hillside and ridge top land owned by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Pricilla Chan, near Kilauea on the north shore of Kauai in Hawaii. The couple are dropping lawsuits seeking to buy out Native Hawaiians who own small parcels of land within their 700-acre Kauai estate.(Photo: Ron Kosen, AP)

SAN FRANCISCO —Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife are dropping controversial suits they filed in December to buy small plots of land that are part of a 700-acre waterfront estate they own on the island of Kauai in Hawaii.

In a letter published in The Garden Island, a local newspaper, Zuckerberg wrote of the complex legal tangle, "it's clear we made a mistake."

Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan bought the 700-acre waterfront estate on Kauai for $100 million in 2014. In December 2016, they filed eight lawsuits against several hundred people to buy 13 plots on eight acres partitioned during the 1850s.

Ownership of some of the plots was unclear, crossing multiple generations and many heirs. According to Zuckerberg's letter, some have had no inhabitants for decades. Others come with complex legal land agreements dating back more than 160 years.

The plots are mostly one acre or smaller and all lie within the 700-acre estate.

Zuckerberg's legal maneuver, called "quiet title and partition," was meant to clarify ownership rights to the land and force it to be sold to the highest bidder through a public auction, allowing Zuckerberg to purchase it.

Some Hawaiians had harshly criticized the maneuver after the suits became public. The outcry grew louder after Zuckerberg took to Facebook to explain his intent, with some charging him with contributing to a trend with roots in colonialism. A group is planning a protest at the wall of Zuckerberg's estate Saturday.

In his letter to the newspaper, Zuckerberg said that in order to "find a better path forward, we are dropping our quiet title actions and will work together with the community on a new approach."

The issue revolves around two conflicting legal attitudes towards land, one European and one Hawaiian.

Many of the plots are what are known as kuleana lands. These are small plots granted to native Hawaiian tenant farmers between 1850 and 1855, which comes with special rights including access, agricultural uses, gathering, water and fishing rights.

Hawaiian law also allows for what's known as "adverse possession," a legal concept that makes anyone who has used land without interference for at least 20 years that land's owner.

Hawaiian rights advocates have long argued that adverse possession was used by sugar cane plantations and ranches to steal land from Hawaiians whose concept of ownership and use was different than that of Western law.

In Friday's letter, Zuckerberg wrote that he and Chan's intention "is to achieve an outcome that preserves the environment, respects local traditions, and is fair to those with kuleana lands."

Zuckerberg's co-plaintiff in some of the suits, 72-year-old retired University of Hawaii professor Carlos Andrade, will continue to pursue quiet title actions to clear up titles on the land belonging to his family, Zuckerberg said in the newspaper column.